（外文电子版资料）Kuttner, Henry - Happy Ending.doc

HAPPY ENDING PAGE PAGE 8 HAPPY ENDING by Henry Kuttner This is the way the story ended: James Kelvin concentrated very hard on the thought of the chemist with the red moustache who had promised him a million dollars. It was simply a matter of tuning in on the man’s brain, establishing a rapport. He had done it before. Now it was more important than ever that he do it this one last time. He pressed the button on the gadget the robot had given him, and thought hard. Far off, across limitless distances, he found the rapport. He clamped on the mental tight beam. He rode it … The red-moustached man looked up, gaped, and grinned delightedly. “So there you are!” he said. “I didn’t hear you come in. Good grief, I’ve been trying to find you for two weeks.” “Tell me one thing quickly,” Kelvin said. “What’s your name?” “George Bailey. Incidentally, what’s yours?” But Kelvin didn’t answer. He had suddenly remembered the other thing the robot had told him about that gadget which established rapport when he pressed the button. He pressed it now – and nothing happened. The gadget had gone dead. Its task was finished, which obviously meant he had at last achieved health, fame and fortune. The robot had warned him, of course. The thing was set to do one specialised job. Once he got what he wanted, it would work no more. So Kelvin got the million dollars. And he lived happily ever after … This is the middle of the story: As he pushed aside the canvas curtain something – a carelessly hung rope – swung down at his face, knocking the horn-rimmed glasses askew. Simultaneously a vivid bluish light blazed into his unprotected eyes. He felt a curious, sharp sense of disorientation, a shifting motion that was almost instantly gone. Things steadied before him. He let the curtain fall back into place, making legible again the painted inscription: HOROSCOPES – LEARN YOUR FUTURE – and he stood staring at the remarkable horomancer. It was a – oh, impossible! The robot said in